Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Meeper

Millicent, naughty you! You're not allowed to talk about anything other than high prices on here. You're certainly not allowed to draw attention to any of the other parts of the UW service that might be beneficial. We all know that the only important thing to constitute a "good deal" is the price on paper.

Just like a mortgage deal I saw earlier which was at 2% fixed for 3 years. I think I'll take that. It will, of course, not matter a bit in my thinking and will be all my own fault that I didn't notice the £10k arrangement fee that applied. The only important thing in choosing the right mortgage is the headline rate, right? Just like the only important thing in discussing a utilities provider is the cost. Well, it would be, except that UW is a Discount Club, not only a Utilities company.

BaggieBoy_3

TwittersPVFC wrote: »

Is there any way you can break down what that 23.32 is BaggieBoy? It should say on your bill.

Thats all i says on the bill mate. I'll be calling them tomorrow to clarify what exactly i'm being charged for each service, i'll post back here when i have answers

BaggieBoy_3

Spoke to them earlier. Aparently i'm on a very old rate and i am indeed paying all that just for calls, line rental and broadband.

They have offered to bring the internet price down to £17.99 but that still means i'm paying well over £30 which seems excessive.

I've contacted sky to see what they can do as i'm already a customer and will look elsewhere as well.

My local exchange is not a LLU one so they told me.

penrhyn

If your telephone exchange is not LLU'd then the Sky price will be much the same as you are being offered by UW, i.e around £17.
Sky Connect broadband is an awful product, suffers from throttling at peak times.
If you are happy with the service you are getting from Opal/UW then as they say if it aint broke don't fix it.

BaggieBoy_3

Sky have quoted me £23.75 for all three services (broadband, line rental and umlimited calls). UW will still be around £33 even after the discount. Not sure if Skys price is ex VAT. I know that UW's price is

penrhyn

OK, it would appear that you can get Sky LLU then. Line rental £11.25, Broadband Unlimited £7.50, Unlimited free Calls £5.

I'd only recommend doing an exchange search on samknows to make sure.
Are you getting the first 3months free?
Is there a set up charge ATM?

Quentin

There's currently up to £50.50 cashback from cashback sites for Sky BB.

penrhyn

Indeed, I've suggested to bagsy that they do a Samknows exchange search. to confirm LLU status.
There is no fair usage policy on Sky unlimited broadband atm.

I guess it would be a tad problematic as they are promoting their Anytime + VOD service which will eat up lots of bandwidth.

Always best to go into battle fully armed.

MillicentBystander

BaggieBoy, as Penrhyn says, make sure your exchange is LLU'd before signing anything.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

Put in your post code and your exchange will appear, click on it and all the BB suppliers who are in your exchange will appear. If Sky/Easynet is there then you're OK, if they are not, then don't commit to a min 12 month contract on what Sky's CS say as apparently Sky's non LLU BB is carp! Also if TalkTalk are there, then AFAIK your UW broadband should be based on LLU prices.

Edit: must type faster...:D

Quentin

In case you get asked by a friend to "do me a favour about a problem at work", here's more evidence of the way uw reps are trained to mislead and bamboozle gullibles when they visit them to sign them up for multiple services.

The reps are urged to follow this training which is "an excellent example of avoiding too much detail"!

http://www.networkerplus.co.uk/audio/jc/Customer_Appt-111209.mp3

In particular the rep introduces the savings the new customer will be getting by telling him that uw supplies their products at wholesale not retail prices.

When the prospect asks about energy rates, the rep "handles" this by ignoring the question and showing the worthless guarantee, then telling the customer that thanks to the guarantee he will never have to swap again!

Throughout the presentation, no mention is made of the monthly membership fee, and generally no details at all are given, in line with all the other training methods we have seen.

Finally the rep reveals to the prospect that his neighbours may be in touch with him as the rep has put letters through their doors informing them all to get in touch with the new gullible to find out about the uw!